The H(e)NB (Home (e)NodeB) is a small, low power (e)NodeB, and is deployed in inner places such as the home and office etc. The main functions of the H(e)NB are to provide a higher service rate to users and reduce the cost required by using services at a high rate, and meanwhile make up the lack of coverage of existing distributed cellular wireless communication systems. The advantages of the H(e)NB are material benefit, convenience, low-power output, plug and play etc.
The H(e)NB is connected to the core network through a H(e)NB AN (Home (e)NodeB Access Network) (as shown in FIGS. 1, 2), wherein, the H(e)NB AN is commonly composed of a H(e)NB (Home (e)NodeB) and a H(e)NB GW (Home (e)NodeB Gateway). The functions primarily performed by the H(e)NB GW are to verify the security of H(e)NBs, deal with the registration and access control of the H(e)NBs, and be responsible for handovering data between the core network and the H(e)NBs. The H(e)MS system is a H(e)NB management system, which performs operation and maintenance management on the H(e)NBs, configures and controls the H(e)NBs according to operator requirements, and primarily implements configuration management function comprising verifying the position information, performing parameter configuration on the H(e)NB, and primarily designing parameter configuration to the CN-level for the H(e)NB, parameter configuration on the RAN side and parameter configuration of RF. For the HeNB (Home eNodeB/evolved home NodeB) system, the HeNB may be connected to the MME directly without through the HeNB GW.
With the development of the H(e)NB technologies, a Closed subscriber group (CSG) concept is introduced. The CSG is a closed subscriber group, which is used to perform packet management to the user, and the user belonging to a certain CSG is on the premise that the International Mobile User Identification Number (IMSI) of the terminal equipment thereof subscribes with the CSG. With the introduction of the CSG concept, the concept for the CSG access mode is introduced in the H(e)NBs, wherein, there are three access modes of the H(e)NBs for the CSG, which respectively are an open access mode, a close access mode, and a hybrid access mode; wherein, the H(e)NB with the open access mode permits the subscription user and non-subscription user to access, which has no difference from the normal macrocell; the H(e)NB with the close access mode merely permits the user subscribing with the CSG to access; while for the H(e)NB with the Hybrid access mode, although the H(e)NB permits simultaneously the subscription user and non-subscription user to access, the subscription user is superior to the non-subscription user, and in the condition that the resources are insufficient, the H(e)NB preferentially serves the subscription user, and may handovers the non-subscription user to other cells or releases the signaling connection thereof, wherein, determining the identity with which the UE accesses the network can be implemented according to allowed CSG lists of the UE. The allowed CSG lists are information lists of all CSGs with which the UE subscribes, and are stored at the network side and UE respectively. If the CSG to which the H(e)NB accessed by the UE belongs is in the allowed CSG list of the UE, the UE accesses by an identity of a subscription user, and the membership thereof is the close membership; otherwise, the UE accesses by an identity of a non-subscription user, and the membership thereof is the open membership. Further, for the HNB, in the condition that the HNB does not support the CSG or the UE does not support the CSG, it is the allowed IMSI list that corresponds to the allowed CSG List and it is stored in the HNB GW, and it is the IMSI list of the UE with which a certain particular HNB subscribes. When the UE which does not support the CSG accesses the Hybrid HNB, if the IMSI of the UE is in the allowed IMSI List, it is considered that the UE have subscribed with the HNB, and the membership thereof can be considered to be the subscription identity; otherwise, the UE accesses by a non-subscription identity.
As the hybrid cell treats the subscribed user and the non-subscribed user differently in terms of the services of the H(e)NB, the H(e)NB needs to know the identity with which the UE accesses, so as to differently process resource utilization according to identities. In this regard, it has been described in the related art. That is, for an initial access UE, if accessing the hybrid CSG cell, for the HeNB, its identity is notified to the HeNB by the CN when the initial context of the UE is established, and for the HNB, its identity is notified to the HNB in the process of the initial RAB assignment of the UE.
Not only the H(e)NB needs to know the real membership of the UE, but also the core network should explicitly know the access information of the UE, wherein, the access information not only includes the membership of the UE, but also includes the information of the corresponding access cell. The CN can perform statistics on the information of users accessing in different modes when knowing membership of UEs, and can treat differently in terms of charging etc. In the process of a handover, as the net elements which process the access control to the UE are different, it may cause the CN not to know the real access information of the UE. Particularly for the way of handover in the same GW, i.e., Intra-GW, when CN assists, the CN cannot totally know the information of the cell which UE accesses.
The handover of the intra-GWs refers to that the H(e)NBs initiating the handover belongs to the same H(e)NB gateway. That is, the source H(e)NB and the destination H(e)NB belong to the same H(e)NB GW. As the access control to the UE is implemented on the H(e)NB GW and there is no interact with the core network during the handover of the UE, the core network cannot obtain the access information of the UE per se and the information of the H(e)NB cell which the UE currently accesses.
Further, for the case of HeNB, the net element for access control to the CSG may be on the source HeNB, the MME or a destination HeNB GW. For the condition when the MME performs access control, MME knows the membership of the UE when performing the access control; however, when performing access control on the source HeNB and the destination HeNB GW, the MME does not know the real membership of the UE after the access control is implemented.
Further, for the HNB system, the UEs are divided into two kinds of UEs, i.e., the UE which supports the CSG and the UE which does not support the CSG. During a handover process, for the condition of supporting the CSG, the access control is similar to the case of the HeNB; and for the condition that the UE does not support the CSG, as the destination HNB GW stores the IMSI list of the UE subscribing with the destination HNB, the access control is implemented on the HNB GW, and for this, the CN cannot obtain the membership of the UE.